By now, the benefits of cloud-based unified communications (UC) are indisputable. The business transformation made possible by migrating to a fully-featured solutions provider can help you connect your employees and customers, control operating costs, drive productivity and streamline your business processes.

Thanks to both ongoing trends and the recent pandemic, the case for cloud-based unified communications has never been stronger. Mobile employees who are working more from home need to be able to conduct business equally from their office desk and their living room couch, while IoT devices throughout the enterprise require constant, reliable connectivity to share data and drive operations.

But that doesn’t mean you have time for the disruption that can occur when transitioning from a legacy on-premises system to a cloud communications platform, especially when you’re migrating a business-critical system that the organization depends on to work reliably. Adopting a poorly designed and implemented cloud solution can lead to compromised enterprise communications that will have a far-reaching impact on your internal staff, your operations, and your customers. Getting your migration right the first time is vital.

Managing the people and processes involved is one of the most important aspects of a successful UC migration. A winning project begins with meticulous planning and coordination between the customer and the UC provider’s delivery team. In addition, since employees may be initially reluctant to embrace the new technology, it’s important to communicate the reason for the change along with timelines and expectations.

Business transformation cannot be accomplished without the involvement of your business partners in all phases of the project. Here are the three steps you need to take to ensure a smooth, secure transition.

The planning stage of migration is critical, and will more than pay for itself in terms of saved time, money and frustration. Make sure you develop a comprehensive migration plan for all sites, including the employees who will be actively involved in the transition and their assigned roles and responsibilities. As part of this process, you will need to conduct thorough site surveys to identify pilot sites to serve as initial locations. These should represent a cross-section of your organization’s site types, but not be mission-critical to the day-to-day operations of your business.

Think about the specific communications requirements for each site or location and how they help you meet your business objectives. For example, your contact center may require omnichannel communications with customers across phone, text, and email, while your data center may require large data pipes but need only limited communication functionality. This will help your UC provider identify the most appropriate infrastructure for each site location.

A UC migration is also a great opportunity to identify any outdated telecom infrastructure that your organization no longer needs, such as old devices or orphaned phone lines. By removing these, you can directly impact ROI and further justify your migration to the new enterprise cloud communications platform.

Choose a company with a robust UC and consulting portfolio so you will be supported throughout the migration process. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Your provider should create a tailored strategy for your organization, along with robust guidelines for employees to follow and a dedicated support team to help reduce the impact of migration on your daily operations, while maintaining business continuity during the transition.

Verizon can help make your migration to cloud-based unified communications simple by helping you plan your migration, consider your business outcomes, and provide you with the support you need to improve your enterprise cloud communications and collaboration capabilities.

Learn more about our cloud-based Unified Communications and Collaboration as a Service solutions.